With its low self-esteem and high urban blight, Hartford is the ultimate underdog city. Sad City Hartford documents the joys, sorrows and eccentricities of New England's Rising Star.

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Proof of the Meatloaf Guy's Existence

Last week’s comic about the Butterfly’s legendary Meatloaf guy seemed to strike a chord with all twelve of our readers. And while several of you mentioned that you too have encountered the Meatloaf guy in his natural habitat, there were a surprising number of you who questioned both the authenticity of the story and the actual existence of the Meatloaf guy as if he were some sort of mythical, adult-contemporary singing Yeti.

Today, we are here to present to you irrefutable proof that the Meatloaf guy does, in fact, exist.

Exhibit A

Upon reading the Meatloaf comic, Erik from Manchester told us about the time that the Meatloaf guy came to his house and played Guitar Hero.

Erik writes:

Dude…did I ever tell you about the time that Meatloaf guy was at my house singing Guitar Hero? He came with his friend, who was [my girlfriend’s] sister-in-law’s old neighbor. They were joking about the difficulty setting before he sang Eye of the Tiger. After he got 74% or something he was saying how guitar hero was wrong. Seriously.

I mean don't get me wrong, it was the best version of Eye of the Tiger ever sang at my house.

See? Proof! How could an imaginary man possibly show up at someone’s house and perform the theme song from Rocky III and then dispute the validity of the Guitar Hero vocal scoring system?

Exhibit B

Not convinced by Erik’s Guitar Hero story? Well, behold even more proof…a grainy cell phone video of the real Meatloaf guy performing “I Would Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That)” at the Butterfly. The anonymous tipster who Gmailed the clip to us said that the video was from last year.

Note the pitch, note the tone. If you were to close your eyes and simply listen to that recording, you could have mistaken it for the real Meatloaf! Also, as described in the comic, note the odd wardrobe choice. He is dressed like an obese Errol Flynn.

Alright, this is blowing my mind, because I used to frequent Butterfly on the regular, and I saw this clown all the time. A few things about him you failed to mention:

- At one point he had an entourage, who, when he was outside smoking cigarettes, would attempt to physically stop you from interrupting him to say "hey, nice song," or whatever.

- He told us on multiple occasions that he had been on tryouts with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, and that he was the last vocalist cut. He didn't seem to find this as funny as we did.

- He was utterly humorless not only with his own persona, but with anyone else singing karaoke as well. If you went to sing and you weren't good, or were just goofing around. He'd glare at you and make loud noises, as your pathetic attempt at harmony was taking away from his Serious Artistic Expression.

- He regularly palled around with Ponytail Guy and his ultra-creepy wife, both of whom sing weird 1970's love ballads without any levity and pretty much act just like Meatloaf Guy in terms of being jerks.

this guy has ruined the whole Karaoke funtime experience with his School or Perfoming arts entourage and their "i'm gonna live forever" attitude. They made a Scorpion bowl not fun so that alone proves that he could actually be the devil. or maybe the fat white non dancing Leroy.